A Different Art and Love
by DenizenofTwilight
Summary: Rinoa aims to be like her mother. But when she learns Squall is Laguna's son, she thinks she's too much like her mom. It's a new test in the art of love. NOT AU


**Warning: There is undoubtedly typos. If you can't stand typos, perhaps you should come back later.**

**So… I haven't played VIII in a very long time. And I've only played it once. Some of these details may not be correct, (and I deeply apologize for that) but this **_**is**_** Canon. And about time I wrote something for these two/this fandom. **

**Different Art. A Different Love. **

Rinoa Heartily stood stock still in her and Squall Leonhart's room. This behavior had all started when she began thinking about her mother's death. The coroner's office had said that her heart hadn't been strong enough to combat such a strain of cancer. Rinoa had known the truth… her mother's heart had not been strong enough to deal with her heartache of losing her one true love.

Rinoa's grief had been tenfold what most people's would have been. Rinoa had always had a very special connection to her mother. After all, it was Julia who had taught the young "princess" to be who she was. She'd taught Rinoa to dance, to stand up for what she believed in, and to be a free spirit. She'd basically taught Rinoa who she should be. But she did not resent her mother for that.

She loved her for it.

The way that Rinoa was… well, it made the girl feel like she was with her mother even after her death. Her father didn't understand this about Rinoa. He didn't understand who she was. And Rinoa wondered how he had loved her mother at all; couldn't he see that Rinoa was exactly like her? Of course he didn't. That was why Julia had never really been able to love _him_. It was the same reason why Rinoa's mother had died of heartbreak when Laguna Loire had been discovered to be alive and married. Rinoa wondered idly what it would feel like to pine after someone that much. To have your world begin and end with them. To die when you realized your whole world had left your grasp. A voice in the back of her mind told her that she knew that feeling all too well.

Sometimes Rinoa wished that she could resent her mother. Why couldn't she have been stronger? Why couldn't she have stayed with her husband and daughter?

On most days, Rinoa just wanted to be like her mother even more. So she'd made a list of the way her mother had acted whenever she thought of her lover. For the longest time Rinoa's sole purpose in life had been to find someone that could make her feel special and loved. The way that Laguna had made Julia feel.

Her priorities had inevitably changed when Timber had been under siege. If Julia had loved anything more than Laguna it had been their home. The home where she'd met Laguna, the place she'd lived with her husband and daughter. The place that had made Julia who she was. It was only natural that Rinoa had tried to free something that meant so much to her mother. To her and her family.

Of course it was then that Rinoa had met Seifer. He'd been everything she'd dreamed about. Dedicated to helping Timber, a true gentleman, and handsome to boot. Yes, it had seemed like her life had fallen where it was meant to.

It was somewhat ironic… when Rinoa had met her handsome Squall, she'd been certain that if anyone could make her hate the SeeD mercenaries it would be him. But in the end, Seifer had been a fox in sheep clothing and Squall had been a wounded sheep.

Rinoa had been quite shocked when she'd started to fall for Squall. Seifer had made Rinoa feel amazing. He was the kind of guy that she was sure her mother would have wanted her with.

Squall Leonhart was cold, emotionless, indifferent, and many other bad things. Of course as they'd gotten to known each other; Rinoa had noted that he felt too much, had worried too much what people thought of him. The way Squall acted was just a façade; he didn't want to risk further emotional trauma.

Yes, as she spent more time with Squall she was definitely falling in love with him. And she was still very confused by that prospect. Squall was nothing like her mother's type. But one night while she'd slept restlessly in Balamb Garden, she'd remembered something her mother had told her: Laguna had worn a cheerful mask hoping no one would see him for the man he really was. Her and her mother were alike. They had a thing for tortured men.

Especially men that were related. Rinoa didn't know what to do with her new knowledge that Squall was Laguna's son. That the great love her mother had always spoken about could very well become her father-in-law.

"Rinoa?" Selphie edged her on from the other end of the phone. Instantly Rinoa was back to reality.

"I'm sorry, what'd you say, Sephie?"

Selphie huffed dramatically at Rinoa's lack of attention. "I was saying that he fits your list perfectly, Rin. Why would you even consider giving him up for such a mundane reason?"

Rinoa smiled crookedly. Selphie did have a good point. Squall was sweet, and surprising, and adorable, and everything good in the world. Why was she freaking out? "I messed things up pretty soundly, huh?"

Selphie laughed loudly, strangely, but somehow appealingly. "I would say."

"What do you suggest I do to make up for this misstep, 'Oh Wise One?'"

Selphie's laughter echoed through the phone once again, and Rinoa couldn't help but smile at Selphie's predictability. "Seeing as how he gets all hot and bothered by you when you're decked out in artist garbs, my suggestion is to paint him a masterpiece Ms. Heartily."

Rinoa knew that hanging around Irvine so much hadn't been a good idea for Selphie. But if Irvine were here right now, she knew his teasing would be worse. Sometimes she thought her cheeks would forever be stained crimson because of his exploits. "Goodbye, Selphie." Rinoa spoke part bitterly, yet part jokingly. And for added affect Rinoa ended the call before Selphie could get another word in.

Rinoa wasn't sure about making the Commander "hot and bothered," but she figured she could handle art well enough. She pulled out a blank canvas paper; she prepared to fling some sort of painting onto it. But as her fingers became drenched with paint another idea struck.

The SeeD trainee quickly called Squall and pleaded with him to come over around eight o'clock. Looking back on the conversation, Rinoa was embarrassed by how much she had apologized. But if anything, she needed to apologize more. Squall had just proposed to her in a very cute (though not intentionally cute) way, and she had acted atrociously. Squall had already been having a bad day. The proposal hadn't even gone the way that he'd planned. Rinoa had no doubt he'd been beating himself up for that (even though in her book the entire thing had been adorable). Rinoa should have remedied the situation. Instead she'd given him a "maybe" and shooed him away in horror after just learning that Laguna was in fact Squall's father. Rinoa's mother and Squall's father had been lovers.

Her mother and Squall's father had had sex. Something she'd been want-

Rinoa cut off that train of thought, but once again her mind somehow ended up leading her back their. She didn't want to be _that_ much like her mother.

"I need a distraction," Rinoa mumbled to herself. Digging out her mobile phone, she once again found herself calling up Selphie. "Sephie, can you keep Angelo at your house while I do my project?" Rinoa didn't have time for pleasantries right now.

"I get it. You want me to watch your dog while you and your brother do it doggie sty-"

"_Selphie_!" Rinoa growled. "You _really_ need to stop letting Irvine corrupt you. And for Hyne's sake, he's not my brother! If Laguna and my mother had had kids Squall and I wouldn't even be who we are! And you're doing a crappy job at making me feel better."

Selphie giggled too lightly for Rinoa's taste. "You're just too easy to tease, Rin. But I am sorry. There's no way that I'm staying away from Irvine. But I will come get Angelo. See you in five?"

"Yep. See you then. Bye."

"Bye."

After disengaging her phone call with Selphie, Rinoa went to what she deemed "Angelo's room.", but was truly the laundry room. She scooped the big dog up in her arms with surprising ease. She kissed him, petted him, and whispered sweet nothing's in his ear. "I hate leaving you, Ang. But my talented, amazing piano playing dog might mess up this project." Not a second after she said that, Rinoa heard a knock at her door and reluctantly handed Angelo to Selphie. She hated making Angelo ever leave her. He really was the best dog in the world, and he felt anxious when he couldn't defend Rinoa. Rinoa promised herself she'd get him back as soon as possible. "Thank you, Selphie." Rinoa told her younger friend.

"No problem." Selphie said with strain. "Has he gotten heavier?" Rinoa shrugged unable to answer. Angelo seemed as light as a feather to her. She'd thought the muscles they'd gained from saving the world would make him seem that way to anyone. Apparently not. Perhaps Rinoa was used to carrying her baby around. Or maybe her sorceress powers were making her stronger. Rinoa shivered at the thought.

Once again feeling the need of a distraction, she quickly braided her hair and switched into old clothes that she wouldn't care dirtying. She wore a white spaghetti-strap shirt, an orange button-down plaid shirt left open _over_ the spaghetti strap shirt. And she also wore very light blue jeans that came with holes already in them. And Selphie had said Squall liked looks like this. Yeah right.

Rinoa thought it best to focus on the matter at hand. Quite literally, actually. Pulling the paint out of one of her chest of drawers, Rinoa was quick to put different dabs of color on each finger.

This was another likeness to her mother. A young Rinoa had been quite surprised at this art technique her mother had created; even more honored that she was the only one her mother had shared it with. Though many knew that Julia was an accomplished musician, many people didn't know that she was a good artist too.

Julia would make sculptures, oil pastel drawings, mosaics, and any other form of art that one could imagine, but for all of this music was her primary love. Julia always began painting by putting the paint on her fingers, (feeling that it makes your artwork come to life if you truly feel yourself create it) but before she would place any paint on the canvas, she would go over to the piano and play one of her songs. Music was the life that Rinoa felt Julia had lived for, and her music always seemed to make her artistic juices flow before she tried to apply a vision to paper.

Following in her mother's footsteps, Rinoa went over to the piano and began singing and playing her own arrangement of her mother's "Eyes on Me." It was interesting to say the least. In some ways having paint on her fingers made it harder for Rinoa to stroke the keys, so she would have to press down harder. It made the whole song almost crescendo and gave the song new feeling. After being done with the piece, Rinoa went over to the canvas and started painting the image she'd had in her head for a good while now.

Another reason why Julia had "painted" the piano was because she knew—like many artists knew—that you always have too much paint on your hands at first. If you tried to paint right away, you'd just have huge globs of paint in certain places. It made the whole thing messy and unprofessional. If you played the piano first, you'd not only get some of the excess paint off, but of course become even more inspired from what you played.

Upon lifting her hands off the canvas for a moment, Rinoa smiled upon noting that she had about the same amount of paint on her hands that her mother had used to before she began her artwork. Julia had taught Rinoa a very important technique if she were going to use this medium of artwork… make your most prominent pieces of your vision first. As the paint became less and less on your finger you would expand to areas of lesser importance. By the end you'd be really straining to get paint in certain areas. Rinoa thought vaguely at one point her mother might have gotten blood on her portrait in her trials. The whole thing put a sense of realism to the portrait, and showed how straining life could really be.

About three hours later, Rinoa rung her hands together feeling her job had been well done. She looked at the portrait critically. At the left hand corner Rinoa had drawn smoke and as you looked up from that vantage point, the picture looked as though the smoke were coming from Rinoa's fingertips. As the picture went upward it became more defined, as these had been her "most prominent parts." The picture showed Squall holding Rinoa in his arms. She stood facing his chest and his hand was holding her unoccupied one. He brought that hand up to his lips and his other hand was wrapped securely around her waist. The picture had been very meaningful to Rinoa when she'd only _envisioned_ it. Now that she saw it, she couldn't help but feel drawn in by its emotions. The section of the picture that showed her sorceress' magic was very strained: a gray area. She and Squall had always somewhat feared being torn apart because of her powers. This picture disagreed. The only thing that was really defined, the only thing that was certain was the part that depicted her and Squall. They would always be together. Always love together. And always _be _for each other. Rinoa choked up at the thought.

"This is gorgeous, Rin."

Rinoa practically jumped two feet into the air at hearing Squall's voice behind her. "Hyne, Squall! You scared me half to death."

Squall laughed with mirth. He was so different than the solitary man she'd met just a while ago. It filled her heart to know that Squall was starting to feel so much hope in his life.

"I'm sorry, Beautiful. You did say to be here at eight. I suppose I'm a little early."

Rinoa disregarded the notion that Selphie might have been right about Squall's desire for her attire. Rinoa quickly glanced at her—somewhat paint covered—watch. It was three minutes until eight. How had she lost track of time so easily? Her mother always had called her her "possessed perfectionist." Rinoa waved her hand in a dismissive manner to Squall's words. "I'm just glad you're here at all."

Rinoa had meant to reassure him, but upon repeating the words in her head, she could easily see why he would look so stricken by her words. "I'm sorry, Rinoa, and you have no need to be. You certainly don't have to feel you owe me anything. I proposed to you at the wrong time; there's no way to deny that truth. I'd just learned that Laguna was my biological father, and you'd told me that you were remembering suppressed memories. You figured out—through your mother's stories about my father—that my father and Julia were lovers before I did. I would have been horrified if _I'd_ just figured that out and _you'd_ proposed. Don't feel bad, Rinoa. Please don't resent me."

Rinoa's mouth had formed a perfect "O" in shock. Squall thought he was in the wrong? That Rinoa wouldn't want to be with him? That was the most absurd thing she'd ever heard. After everything, how could she _not_ love Squall? Perhaps he hadn't stated a new leaf as completely as she'd thought.

Rinoa pulled gently on Squall's sleeve as if one wrong touch would shatter it. "You've seen part of my surprise to you. It's time you see the rest of it." Squall's face looked reluctant as Rinoa led him to her piano, but he followed her effortlessly. He seemed almost reassured by her touch. Rinoa quickly directed Squall to sit on the bench beside her before she tried explaining why she'd been acting so peculiar. "My mom's death—which was really just her abandoning us without cruel words—hurt me so much that I suppressed all my moments with her. In falling in love with you _I_ also learned to live. As I said, I've been remembering my mother more and more. But I didn't tell you that I've all but been forcing myself to remember every detail of the memories. I've been wanting to be exactly like my mom—like I use to be—to feel close to her. I think being so caught up in my mom, and then figuring everything out made me insane for a moment. I'm so sorry, Squall. I'll always want to love and be with you. But I need to make amends with both of these things.

"I told you about how my mom had pretty much created her own medium of art: almost "painting" a piano before painting a canvas. But I didn't tell you the most important thing. My mom would be the first to play, and then paint. She'd have some paint left over on her fingers even after that. Then she'd have me play the same song she had. I was so young that she'd guide me with her hands. I'd get paint on my fingers from that left on the keys, and she'd still have paint on her hands as she touched my own. It would make our hands stick together somewhat. My mom said the god of art and music would make us always feel a connection when we saw or heard either. That's why we'd play the same song… I was her favorite person, so she shared this with me. I think it was really more for soul mates though. I know she would have tried to share this with Laguna, Squall. Will you share this with me?"

It was somewhat amusing that Rinoa would end up being so heartfelt by the lack of Squall's words. How she used to chastise him for keeping his feelings in; now she couldn't be less than thankful for his silence. After all, she needed complete silence for this.

Rinoa gracefully sat down on Squall's lap. She couldn't help but remember the Ragnarok. She'd been so broken then. Having just recently becoming a sorceress and knowing everything was about to fall apart, she'd hung on to Squall almost painfully. Trying to make a few hours feel like forever. She had no reason to rush their forever now.

Squall's arms snaked around Rinoa to reach the keys. She placed her hands atop his; reveling in the warmness that engulfed her just as it had when he'd held her for the first time, freeing her from her imprisonment.

Rinoa began guiding Squall's fingers along the key tops and as music began to fill the room, she began humming her mother's song. To her shock, Squall started _singing _to the melody. He had such a lovely baritone voice, and Rinoa was so glad that he was finally using it.

"I've always secretly loved music. Ever since the day I got separated from Ellone, it's been a constant comfort to me."

Though the music had stopped before its completion, the magic certainly hadn't. In some ways Rinoa was glad that they hadn't finished the song—though she and Squall sounded wonderful together—to sing to the end seemed too _much_ like an ending.

"Why Mr. Leohnart!" Rinoa exclaimed. "Who would have thought you could warrant such emotion!"

Squall's lips dove for Rinoa's neck and she momentarily lost her bearing at the tickling sensation. "That, Ms. Heartily," he said "is exactly why I never told anyone about it."

"Well you don't have to hide from me." Rinoa said abruptly serious.

"The same applies to you, Rinoa. I know more than you give me credit for." And with that Squall pulled out the same engagement ring he had last time, but it was smeared with paint this time.

"How did you-"

"A little bird," he began but quickly amended with a shake of his head. "A little dog hinted at it to me."

Squall slid one ring on to her ring finger before he clasped Rinoa's hand in his. Bringing their hands over his heart, he spoke: "It's not much. It's been broken many times, and it's flawed. But no matter what it feels… What it's experienced… it's always been yours, Rinoa."

Their hands had gotten past ridiculous. They were both so sticky in paint. She thought that their hands very well might be stuck together forever. And that was just fine. Everything had become more perfect than her imaginings could have ever offered up.

"Marry me, Rinoa." He said simply.

"Anything. Everything. Yes." She said.

Squall kissed Rinoa with a passion that would have burned the entirety of Gaia up. And it was amazing how fast things switched back to normal.

"You totally created your own line, you know." She said referring back to his variation of "a little bird told me."

"That's true!" Squall laughed and then kissed her hand. "But you created a new way to express love. You created love in me. "

"We belong together." And as Rinoa said it she realized the truth of her own words. It was fate. Somehow, somewhere she imagined her mother had brought them together. After all, she better than anyone would know they were meant to be. "Thank you." She said to her mother, Julia. But mostly she said them to her soul mate, her fiancé, her could've/would've been brother, but more than that, he was her Squall, and always would be. She knew he heard all the love and meanings in her words. Squall had always been simple. _Or maybe not_… she thought remembering his genius in painting the ring, knowing her so well. Well, she had forever to see all sides of him now. They stayed together until morning. They'd stay together forever.

-/-/-/-

**Author's Note:** I somewhat plagiarized myself with this one. I'd originally written a proposal scene for Squall and Rinoa that I'd never finished. This story is sort of a sequel to that if I would have ended it differently than I'd intended. I think this story was inspired by an Art Walk I'd gone on before I wrote this. LOL

By the way, I imagine Rinoa's arrangement (and singing) of "Eyes On Me" to be the Angela Aki version. Obviously, Julia's was the Faye Wong version. Hey, if Julia can play the piano and sing, (and paint in my story) why shouldn't her daughter? Maybe that's another reason I wrote this. LOL Well, I hope you enjoyed. May the light guide you;)

-Shanna


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